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Momentum
for imposing fees or bans has expanded from a few, often affluent,
liberal cities on the West Coast -- San Francisco was the first big city
to ban plastic bags, in 2007 -- to dozens of legislative proposals in
states like Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Texas and Virginia.

Yet as support increased in places, the national economy began to decline. No state has imposed a fee or a ban.

As the Times notes, city officials in Seattle last summer became the first in the nation to approve a 20-cent fee for every bag sold. But that's now going to be put to a ballot vote later this year.

But a petition drive financed by the plastic-bag industry delayed the plan. Now a far broader segment of Seattle's bag carriers -- its voters -- will decide the matter in an election in August.

Even in a city that likes to be environmentally conscious, the outcome is uncertain.